eclipse

View Details on July 22 Total Solar Eclipse in Google Earth

July 13, 2009

HeyWhatsThat is a site which has many tools for viewing things from your position on the Earth including things like nearby mountain peaks, or night sky objects, or even solar eclipses. On July 22nd, a total eclipse of the sun will occur in the asia pacific region. The path of totality crosses some highly populated areas in China – like Shanghai. The author of HeyWhatsThat, Michael Kosowsky, wrote to let me know of several tools he has which can help people visualize the event. But, the one that’s most cool is the simulation of the event you can watch in the Google Earth plugin. Check out the time animation simulation of the solar eclipse here . Here’s a screenshot:

Solar Eclipse Simulation in Google Earth

HeyWhatsThat has also provided a map to view the path of the solar eclipse which will show you whether you can see the eclipse. A way to see the sky view of the event (from your location) with Google Maps using the Cosmic Visibility site. And, you can use his planisphere mode to see the eclipse which uses the Sky mode of Google Earth.
You can also use this excellent eclipse calculator site by Xavier Jubier to view more details on the solar eclipse in Google Earth

GE File. You must have Google Earth installed.

. In addition to showing the July 22nd path of totality and partial eclipse, you can move your view to any location and, after a brief pause, get a placemark which will show you how long the eclipse will be available for that location (and other details). Xavier also has a version for Google Maps.

2008 August 1st Total Eclipse in Google Earth

June 23, 2008

Just a week before the 2008 China Olympics, there will be a total solar eclipse occurring on the first of August which crosses China, Mongolia and central Russia. The best web resource I’ve found on eclipses (solar and lunar) is by Xavier Jubier. Here is his web page with all the details on the 2008 August 1 Total Eclipse including links to his Google Earth KML file of the total eclipse path . Much of Europe will also see most of the sun covered on this day. Xavier also has a Google Maps version of the map, and his web site is also available in French.
See the earlier GEB story on visualizing Solar Eclipses. Xavier also has a page showing Google Earth files of total eclipses from 1961 through the rest of this century.

Predict Tonight’s Lunar Eclipse with Google Earth

February 20, 2008

Tonight there will be a total lunar eclipse. A great opportunity for those of you with new digital cameras to try your hand at some basic astrophotography (read some tips on photographing a lunar eclipse). For those in the American continents it should be well above the horizon when the eclipse occurs. Thanks to a some nice work by Michael Kosowsky of HeyWhatsThat.com, you can download a simple KML file that will let you use Google Earth Sky to view when and where tonight’s lunar eclipse will occur for your location. Fast, simple, and free! The KML file for Google Sky is simple to load , and it will automatically guess your location on the Earth by guessing the location of your IP address. Make sure you select the “Switch to Sky” mode when Google Earth prompts you. Double click on the “HeyWhat’s That.com” placemark to position your view on the moon. Based on your location, you will see the green lines of a “planisphere” which represents your horizon in Google Sky; cardinal points showing north, south, east, west; the positions of the moon and planets; and a special symbol representing the Earth’s shadow relative to the position of the moon. Not only that, but the time slider will be visible and you can drag the slider to determine precisely when the eclipse will occur. A full animation of the full sequence of the moon’s eclipse. Very cool! When the moon falls within the darker circle of the shadow, the moon is in the total eclipse (as shown in the screenshot). Look at the time below the slider to determine what time it will occur.
Note: if the KML file doesn’t properly guess your location (look at the lat/long coordinates shown in the KML that downloads), then use the Advanced Planisphere page at Michael’s site to set your position with a map, then select “February lunar eclipse” and hit “Submit”. You’ll get a new KML with the proper coordinates.
Michael also has developed a Google Maps mashup called Cosmic Visibility which uses the Sky data and shows the lunar eclipse with a browser. Click on the link on the left which says “February lunar eclipse” to see the event there. Great work Michael!
Related: Release of HeyWhatsThat planisphere for Google Sky

Solar Eclipse Paths in Google Earth

January 12, 2006

Recently someone contacted me with some interesting Google Earth files which show solar eclipse paths (where the eclipse is viewable on the ground), both total and annular (for information on solar eclipses see this Wikipedia article). His web site contains a few historical ones dating back to 1961, but is mostly focused on near-term (those in this century) future eclipses. The next total solar eclipse is only 76 days away on 29-March-2006 and crosses over a lot of land mass from southern Russia, across Kazahkstan, Turkey, and right across north-central Africa. Here is the 29-March-2006 Total Eclipse path for Google Earth. Now you can plan your trip with Google Earth for the best location to view the Eclipse, find an airport, make hotel arrangements, figure out which geocaches are nearby, etc. Thanks to Xavier Jubier for creating the GE files and informing me about them. Also, his data came from Fred Espenak, at NASA/GSFC.
By the way, last October someone at the Google Earth Community, calling himself ‘yaohua2000’, posted a huge repository of all the solar eclipses (4.7 Mbytes) since the year 1001 for GE. WARNING: this might take a while to load (4.7 Mbytes), and your Earth will look like a yarn ball after it loads (he defaults with all the eclipse paths turned on). I recommend after it loads you find the placemark folder in your Temporary Places folder called “Eclipses” and turn it off. Then open the folder and turn on the type and year of eclipses you want to see (it is well organized hierachically). This is a very interesting collection of data. I was able to find a total eclipse I saw as a child (a long time ago).